August 1, 2012 - Trivia Day
by mmooch
Summary: **Part of the 2012 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts August Fic-A-Day** series, also known as the 'Wacky Holiday Series'. Buffy finds herself in a quaint little underground bar when she visits Boston.


**August 1, 2012 - Trivia Day**

Summary: **Part of the 2012 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts August Fic-A-Day** series, also known as the 'Wacky Holiday' series. Buffy finds herself in a quaint little underground bar when she visits Boston.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2012 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Timeline: post-series for BtVS; Coach episodes for Cheers, but change the dates so they line up.

Warning: none that I can think of.

A/N: This year, I decided on a theme for my series of ficlets…wacky or strange American holidays. They aren't all weird, but the site that I got the weird ones from also listed 'real' holidays like Christmas, etc. There were a few of those that I wanted to put in. **The dates in the title won't match the dates of the holidays; those are mentioned in the story.** Thank goodness for late night baking that gives me the opportunity to write while I'm waiting; I might be the first person to post this year!

Thanks to my betas: none, due to the fast turnaround necessary.

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Cheers characters belong to James Burrows, Glen Charles, Les Charles, Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions In Association With Paramount Network Television, CBS Television Distribution. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

**Cheers**

When Faith learned that Buffy had to go to Boston to check out a potential seer, she insisted that Buffy had to check out a bar called Cheers. As luck would have it, the person she was looking for was familiar with the bar and suggested they have their meeting there.

As she looked around the bar, Buffy got a sense of coming home from the place. It was an extremely welcoming establishment. She decided that since she had thirty minutes until her appointment arrived, she'd get a drink to pass the time.

She sat down at the bar next to a guy in a mailman's uniform who was talking to the bartender about January 4th being Trivia Day. An overweight guy at the other end of the bar heard that and called out, "You mean they created a day just for you, Cliff?"

"God must hate us!" a sarcastic brunette snapped from behind Buffy.

Just then, a tall, good-looking man swooped down – that was the best way Buffy could describe it – in front of her. "Hey, pretty lady…I haven't seen you here before. What can I get you?"

"Just a coke for now, please," Buffy replied. "I have a meeting here in a few minutes and probably shouldn't have alcohol on my breath."

"Why would you have a meeting in a bar if you were worried about the smell of alcohol?" the older bartender asked. Then he realized he didn't know the woman and held out his hand in greeting. "My name's Ernie Pantusso, but you can call me Coach."

"Buffy Summers," she replied, shaking the man's hand. "A friend of mine is from Boston and insisted that I check this place out. When I happened to mention it to the person I came to see, he said we could meet here."

"Oh yeah? What's your friend's name?" the younger man asked. "My name's Sam Malone; I own this place."

Buffy shook his hand as well. "Nice to meet you. My friend's name is Faith Lehane. Not sure how she knew about this place since she was only like 16 or so when she left Boston."

"Lehane?" Sam repeated absently. "I knew a Karen Lehane once upon a time…back in high school. She was-" he cut off abruptly as he realized who he was talking to and that his comment probably wouldn't be the most polite thing to say to a woman.

A blonde woman in a floral dress came up to the bar with a drink order which she handed to coach. "Let me guess…she was one of your countless conquests?" she snarked.

"Actually, _Diane_, Karen was the first girl I ever loved," Sam snarked right back to the waitress. "It broke my heart when she didn't come with me when I dropped out to play ball. I thought I heard that she moved away shortly afterwards. I guess she must have moved back at some point. Wonder why she never told me?"

As he turned to the side for a second, Buffy saw something that made her eyes widen in shock. She wondered if she was imagining things, but she could swear she saw some very familiar features from that angle. Did Faith know? Or maybe she suspected and that's why she wanted Buffy to come here…check the guy out for her? He looked old enough…kinda, but he would have had to be very young when it happened.

While this was going on, the mailman next to her kept spouting trivia to anyone even pretending to listen, "It's a little known fact that Leonard Nimoy wasn't really from Boston."

"Now wait a minute, Cliff," the portly gentleman protested, getting up from his stool and marching over to sit on the other side of Cliff and debate the topic, "I know for a fact that he's from here."

Cliff shook his head, "That's because he lied about where he's from, Norm. After all, who would want to claim they were from Swampscott, Massachusetts? It sounded better to say he was from Boston."

"Nimoy?" Buffy interjected. "That's a strange coincidence."

"You're sure telling me," Coach agreed.

Sam chuckled and clapped Coach on the shoulder. "You don't know why it's a coincidence yet, Coach."

The older man thought for a split second, much to the amusement of his co-workers and friends – apparently this was normal behavior for him – and said, "That's right. I'm sorry, Buffy, go on."

Buffy smiled at him, tickled at his behavior; he was just weird enough to fit in with the Scoobies. "My appointment is with a man named Nimoy."

"That doesn't seem so strange after all," Coach retracted his earlier statement.

A very familiar voice spoke up from behind Buffy to argue it though, "I disagree. And I am quite certain that Leonard Nimoy was born in Boston."

"Oh yeah?" Cliff sneered, irritated that somebody was questioning his trivia yet again. "Were you _there_ or something?" he asked without turning around. He didn't notice Sam's eyes were wide in shock.

"As a matter of fact, I was," the man replied. He turned to Buffy and introduced himself, "Hello, Miss Summers, I'm Leonard Nimoy; I believe we have an appointment?"

Buffy giggled as she allowed him to lead her to a private table. Now she understood why Giles insisted that she came here instead of Xander or Andrew. They would have spent the entire interview babbling like Cliff was behind her.

As it turned out, Leonard Nimoy wasn't a seer; he just made some very insightful career choices that made somebody in the Council *cough*Andrew*cough* believe he was more than just a normal human being. They figured that out when he made similar claims about Stan Lee and Mark Hamill.

Once Buffy was informed – via a cell call – of what had happened, she apologized for Andrew's deception.

"That's okay, Miss Summers," Leonard Nimoy replied graciously. "I have to admit I was curious what a centuries-old organization like the Council wanted with me. I would offer an autograph for you to take back to your colleague, but that might just encourage him to do it again."

"Probably," Buffy admitted. "Thanks for being such a good sport about this."

"If nothing else, I got to dispel the rumor I was born in Swampscott before it spread," he said with a smile.

* * *

A/N: I don't own Leonard Nimoy either, but wouldn't turn down a phone call from him sometime…hint, hint! Hope he doesn't mind that I turned him into a character. His biography says that he is from Boston.

Sorry if I got Sam's backstory wrong; I just couldn't resist the Sam/Faith connection. I'm sure it's been done before.


End file.
